Special Olympics Basketball

I'm coaching a Special Olympics basketball team. The highest level I've ever coached in basketball was an 8th grade boys team, so I'm not all that proficient. Luckily you don't have to be for Special Olympics. We just come out to play to get a little better and have a good time -What sports really are supposed to be about.

We don't really run plays as such. Our offensive strategy is 1.) Know which one is our basket. 2.) Try to score a basket. Our defensive strategy... We really don't have a defensive strategy. Last practice we started working on a 2-1-2 zone defense. (Just saying that makes me sound pretty knowledgeable, but I'm not.) Until then, it was 3.) Try to get the ball 4.) If we don't then rebound. So 1,2,3,4 is basically our game plan. We may incorporate the 2-1-2 zone, but that may be a ways off still.

One year my team did well at a tournament. I told them to just slap at the ball on defense. You shouldn't do that normally, because the refs would call a foul. But the refs at the Special Olympics tournaments know they can't call everything. So, I figured we could get away with the slap strategy. It worked like a charm. The refs also pretty much look the other way on traveling. You just about have to tuck the ball and run the length of the court to get traveling called.

We have a game next week against a college team. We have an "understanding" on what their level of play is going to be. Then in another month we have an official state tournament. I'll keep my blog updated.